Norvic Philatelics

New Machin definitive & Country stamps - 1 April 2008

Postage rate changes which take effect from 7 April will require several
new stamps. The basic inland rates will rise, 1st from 34p to 36p
& 2nd class from 24p to 27p. There will be no 36p or 27p
stamps as these are satisfied by the 1st class gold and 2nd class blue.
The 'balancing' 9p in orange, previously issued for the 2005
rate changes will be reissued, although it is a new printing from a
new cylinder as the 46p was last year
- see enlargements below, under Technical Information.
See new postage rates here.

Note that the images below are studio mock-ups - there are only two
perforation holes below the elliptical perforation, as shown on the
enlargements further down the page.

The basic rates for Large Letters increase from 48p to 52p (1st
class) and from 40p to 42p (2nd class). A new 15p shocking pink
will be used for the 2nd class difference (42p-27p). The existing 16p pale
pink stamp will be used for the 1st class difference (78p-52p). The
Recorded Delivery fee increases to 72p.

Worldwide 20gr rate: +3p to 81p, new 81p
turquoise-blue and country stamps.

Worldwide 40gr rate: £1.22 up by 5p for Zone 1, down 2p
Zone 2 - only one zone now, 'Rest of World'. This should also be satisfied
by the airmail NVI, which will reduce in price from £1.24 (£4.96 per book)
but special stamps (eg if issued at Christmas) will be £1.22 instead of
£1.17.

The Surface mail 20gr rate is increased from 46p to 48p,
this will be served by the 48p issued in 2007.

New Country Stamps valued 50p and 81p will also be issued
for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales in existing
designs.

Technical information

All the new Machin definitive and country stamps will be printed by De La
Rue in gravure, in sheets of 200.
Until now all Machin and Country definitives have been printed in
double-pane cylinders, giving rise to two distinct cylinder numbers, most
recently D1 dot and D1 no dot. For this issue the Wales, Scotland and
Northern Ireland country stamps will be printed with single panes of two
different values on one two-pane printing cylinder and thus the stamps for
these countries will have only no dot cylinder numbers. This process
optimises the use of paper and will probably be repeated in future years.
It is a system which has already been used for commemorative sheets which
are often produced with printing cylinders of 4 counter-size sheets.

New 9p cylinder

As with 2007's reprint of the 46p stamp, the 9p has now been reprinted
by De La Rue from a new cylinder which retains the number D1. On the new
printing the De La Rue logo is
missing from the lower left corner and the colour name 'ORANGE' is
printed in the left margin against row 3. The figure of value seems to be
a little 'rounder', and the image of the head is quite different.

First Day Covers

Norvic Philatelics will service Post Office
first day covers for these stamps.

These special postmarks are available on the day of issue:
(These images are not to scale)